How many close friends do you have?

It is totally unfathomable how a 20-year-old genius can sum up the feelings of someone 50 years old. But this youngster from the iron ore range of Norhern Minnesota -- a complete unknown - nailed the nostalgia completely. It brings me to tears:
 

yes . it is a sonnet. Is it ok to be sad here? I just hope to talk to people
Its more than ok with me!
As humans, especially older ones, we all experience sadness..

Buddhists believe sadness is necessary to grow ...yen yang...
We benefit from experiencing...good/evil sweet/sour ...happiness/sadness
I share your hope folks here will open up and grow in knowledge together.



...
 
I have a few close friends, but often those far away are the ones with whom I share most of what I am privately thinking. There is a reservedness that arises after a lot of experience with interaction with other people, and we learn how to forgo a comment, or not to relate a personal impression when it arises and keep our deep thoughts for letters to trusted friends. I think it is an aspect of wisdom, and why many people who have been our best poets and authors have been letter writers. I aspire to at least profit from the exchange with other 'wise' minds, even if the products of my own contemplations do not have that edge to them that I find in literature.

In a time when gossip and opinions are floated around as though they have any importance and we can easily become overwhelmed by them, the reserved mind that thinks before applying words to paper is a rarity and often the most important aspect of having a deep friendship. In German, the word for a wise person (Weise) has a similarity with the word for orphan (Waise) and are almost identically spoken. Perhaps there is a reason for this.
 
An old friend on Long Island sent me a Christmas email telling me how she read in her diary about the day we met in a pizza place when we were 16. That would be 71 years ago. Today is her 87th birthday. She took the ferry over to CT to celebrate with her family. Many fond memories.
I don't have any close friends because i don't have a car. On Long Island, no one wants to be friends with you if you are carless☹️
 
I had a few friends. They died. So I fight depression. I used to post here more and then I just stopped. I have a few friends up North but now I live in the deep south and travelling is hard for me. Nostalgia clings to me. I smell the nostalgia like sea kelp and saltwater breezes. There are some good people on this forum. I think I am ready to come back.

Aging in Minor Keys

I once imagined skies would burn for me,
Their molten songs ablaze with fierce desire.
But now my days are clouds that barely bleed,
A palette dulled, a smudge of ashen fire.

The roads I skipped are tangled, root-bound veins,
That feed some unseen heart beneath the earth.
My steps, instead, meandered softer plains,
A compass spun to comfort over worth.

Regret’s a ghost who murmurs through the glass,
Its breath a fog that fades with every blink.
I toast its shape with cheap and clinking brass—
Why mourn what’s vanished when there’s beer to drink?

The doors I closed are bells without their clappers,
Still swinging faintly in the dream’s dim rafters.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful poem.
 
My BFF and I have been close for over 60 years.
I'm in a group of four GFs who've been close for 40 years and counting.
I'm also in another group of four - we've been very close friends for nearly 20 years.

Plus two sisters with whom I'm very close, a cousin, and a niece and nephew. These in addition to my husband, children and children in law. I talk, text and/or zoom with all of these people at least once a week and touch base with many every day.

Any of these people would drop what they're doing to be there for me if I needed them, and I would do the same for them.

My mother had many close friends, and her four daughters followed suit. She showed us by example that close friendships only thrive when given the kind of careful, frequent tending that a beautiful garden requires.
 

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